As oil and gas wells are drilled to greater depths it becomes necessary to provide larger and more complicated blowout preventers and other protective devices on the well and as a result, the floor of the drilling rig has been elevated to greater heights above the ground and more particularly above horizontal pipe racks or other storage facilities on the ground or platform on which drill pipe, drill collars, casings, the tubing, and the like, are normally stored. Such pipe racks are normally parallel to the cat walk and vertically lower than the drilling rig floor. During the drilling operation it is necessary to move successive units of pipe from the horizontal pipe racks into a vertical position in the derrick. The drill pipe, tubing, and the like, are connected together end-to-end by means of threaded connections. The threaded areas and adjacent seal surfaces on the pipe must be protected from damage during handling in moving the pipe back and forth from the drill rig to the pipe rack.